Page 160 - Volume 1_Go home mzungu Go Home_merged with links

Decades of post-colonial chaos

"Veni, Vidi, Vici, numquam reliquit - ego adduxit inimici mei !"

intervened unasked; Lumumba invited UN peacekeeping forces to help but they steered

clear of fighting Tshombe's Katanga regime. "

"The Story of Africa" 150
BBC World Service
*****

Cracks in national unity
" The Post-Independence years have been punctuated with changes of government all

over the continent. These have sometimes been military coups or civilian takeovers. The
first inkling people would have would be from a radio announcement. And radio stations

were and continue to be, commandeered for that purpose.

For some countries, a deep and continuous divide has remained unresolved. Sudan and
Chad, for example, are divided between an Arab Muslim north and an African Christian

south. Both countries have suffered destructive civil wars over the decades. In Uganda,
the divide was very broadly between the Baganda of the south and Acholi northerners.

President Milton Obote manipulated the divide both times he was President. The first

time in power, during the 1962-71 term, he burnt the Palace of the Baganda down and
drove the Kabaka (king) into exile. The second time he took power, during 1980-85, he
launched a military campaign of destruction in the south. It was left to President Yoweri

Musseveni to harmonise the different regions when he came to power in 1986.

In Nigeria, one of the largest countries in Africa with an estimated population of 120
million, the divide went very roughly three ways: the Muslim north, Ibo east and Yoruba

south. In 1967, the country collapsed into civil war with the eastern part (Biafra) led by
Colonel Ojukwu declaring Biafra an independent state.

The forces of President Gowan took three years to defeat the Biafran forces. Since 1967

Nigeria has, despite its wealth and population, held together despite tensions between
Muslim communities and Christians ebbing and flowing.

BORDER DISPUTES

In addition to internal stresses and strains, a number of countries have nursed disputed
borders since independence, despite the broad acceptance of the boundaries set by

Europe in the 1880s.

 Chad and Libya have fought over the Aozou strip in northern Chad.

 Ethiopia and Somalia were locked in a battle over the Ogaden region.
 Nigeria and Cameroun have disagreed on the border at Bakassi.